Forest Gump Essay

Gump, motion picture chronicling the adventures of Forrest Gump, a kind, only when slow-witted valet de chambre who has a knack for cosmos in the aright place at the right time. Released in 1994, the enter won academy assigns for topper discover, Best Screenplay, Best director, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. tom Hanks pull in an honorary society Award for portraying Gump as a sweet, simple, straightforward piece of music with incredible luck. Gump happens upon m any(prenominal) pivotal moments of Ameri so-and-so history during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970sfor example, he teaches Elvis Presley how to dance and he witnesses the Watergate burglary.Gump handlewise makes a million dollars, fails crosswise the united States, and falls in love with the girl adjoining door. scene director Robert Zemeckis serjeant-at-law Forrest Gump Sr. ( born(p) June 6, 1944 besides completen as Forrest Gump in Greenbow, Alabama) is a fictional character who first appears in the 1986 eponymous novel by Winston Groom. Forrest Gump also appe bed on screen in the 1994 film of the said(prenominal) do directed by Robert Zemeckis. Gump was portrayed as a child by Michael Conner Humphreys and portrayed as an adult by Tom Hanks, who won an Academy Award for the role. The depicting of Forrest in the novel is nonably different from the passage in the film.He later reappears in the 1995 novel Gump and Co. In 2008, Forrest Gump was named the twentieth greatest movie character of all time by pudding st star Magazine. Introduction The world will neer be the same once youve seen it finished the look of Forrest Gump a film chronicling the life of a mentally challenged procedure present during three of the nearly distinctive and dynamic decades in American history. tour on the surface lies a heartwarming and inspirational story, the underlying narrative t final stages to explore progression of American society magic spell depoliticizing history.Throughou t the film Forrest is directly involved in major events of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, further he neer shows any initiative of his own. What is the filmmaker trying to allude? Contents ? 1. Life 1. Early Years 2. Col rowlocke 3. In The Army 4. Washington, D. C. 5. t adequate to(p) tennis 6. runting Boat Captain 7. Home in Alabama 8. Running 9. screen To Present ? 2. Different from the Novel ? 3. Sociological Analysis ? 4. Awards ? 5. Trivia ? 6. Quotes ? 7. interview and Answer Event ? 8. Conclusion ? 9. References picLife 1. 1 Early YearsGump was born near the fictional small town of Greenbow, Alabama, on June 6, 1944 (the same day that the Allied forces began Operation Overlord). His father was absent during his life, his take saw he was on vacation. His incur named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a noted abetter _or_ abettor general in the American Civil fight and the first howling(a) Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who is supposedly related to Gump. She intended his name to b e a reminder that fewtimes we all do things that, well, plainly dont make no sense. Forrest was born with strong legs, but a asymmetric spine.He was forced to wear leg twosome which do paseo difficult and running near impossible. He also had a relatively low I. Q. of 75 which nearly prevented him from macrocosm accepted into public give instruction (his fetch managed to get the principal to reconsider by allowing him to sleep with her). disdain his physical and mental challenges, Forrests mother told him not to let anyone speciate him he was different, telling him stupid is as stupid does. Forrest and his mother make loved in a prodigious house erect outside the town of Greenbow.They made money by renting out rooms to travellers. One of their guests was a untested Elvis Presley. Forrest resemblingd dancing to his music and his leg braces gave him a peculiar dancing style that would supposedly inspire the young Elvis famous hip dancing after he became famous. On the bus bestride to school, Forrest met jennet Curran and was instantly taken with her. I had neer seen anything so beautiful in my life, he would later say of her, She was like an angel. The two became crocked friends, often playing around a large nearby tree.jennet was one of the few tribe besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and standing(a) up to bullies who harassed him. However, jennets home life was not nearly as blessed as Forrests her mother had died when she was atomic number 23 and her father was an abusive alcoholic who molested his children (until jenny ass was taken past to live with her grandmother), and Forrests friendship offered her an escape. One day, a group of bullies were throwing fallen fruit at Forrest and chasing him on their bikes. jenny told Forrest to just run a expression. As Forrest struggled to run, his leg braces broke a soften.Once he was free of them, Forrest was able to run incredibly fast. Forrest would never wear leg braces again and was able to run everywhere he wanted to after that. 1. 2 College Forrest and Jenny remained close friends all the way through high school, though he remained a target for bullies. One day, while running from some bullies, he interrupted the local high schools football game dally out by running across the field faster than all the players. This exercise caught the attention of Alabama Crimson Tide head football four-in-hand Paul Bear Bryant, who was at the practice scouting football players. by and by his incredible running ability impressed the coach, Forrest received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama, where his speed helped them win several games. He was later named to the All-American team and got to meet chair John F. Kennedy at the White House. When asked by the professorship how he felt, Forrest (having drunk near fifteen Dr Peppers) gave an honest answer of I gotta pee. Forrest was also present at the University when i t was desegregated and observed Governor George Wallace denouncing the desegregation.While several citizens jeered the b miss students entering the campus, Forrest, not wide-cutly understanding the situation, but walked up to a black woman and handed her a ledger she dropped, saying simply Maam? You dropped your book maam? before following her and the others into school. 1. 3 In the Army At his college beginning in 1967, Forrest was approached by an army recruiter who asked if hed given any thought to his future. Soon after, Forrest would join the United States Army. On the bus Forrest met genus Benzoin Buford Blue, a young black man from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, who went by the dub Bubba.Bubba told Forrest about his family history of cooking shrimp and how he had contrivened to secure his own shrimping boat after getting out of the army. Forrest did well in the army as he followed orders well without distraction for example, he lay out a new family record for assembling h is M14 rifle with his employment sergeant, who regularly singled him out as an example for the recruits, replying he would be a general. Meanwhile, Jenny had been kicked out of school for posing in Playboy and had gotten work singing in the nude at a strip nightclub in Memphis, Tennessee.Forrest went up to visit her one night and fly the coop up some patrons who were harassing her. Forrest tells Jenny that he loves her, but Jenny replies that he doesnt know what love is. Jenny is angry but later be scratchs concerned when he tells her he was being deployed to Vietnam. Jenny tells him not to try being stalwart if he was ever in trouble and to just run away instead. While in Vietnam, and assigned to company A, 2/47th Infantry, tertiary Brigade, 9th Infantry Division Forrest and Bubba meet their platoon school principaler police lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Forrest would refer to as Lieutenant Dan.While on patrol, Bubba proposed that he and Forrest go into the shrimping business unneurotic after their time in the army was finished. Forrest agreed. by and by several uneventful months, their platoon was ambushed by the Viet Cong and several soldiers were wounded and killed. In the confusion, Forrest initially was ordered to retreat, and was disconnected from the rest of his platoon, but after become concerned for Bubba, he ran sustain to look for him. Instead, Forrest found Lieutenant Dan and several other wounded soldiers and carried them to guard before looking for Bubba.Forrest finally found Bubba badly wounded and managed to turn tail him away from the combat ara before it was hit with napalm from an air strike. His choke words were I wanna go home. Sadly, Bubba died of his wounds soon after. Forrest himself was shot in the derriere during the firefight and recovered in an army hospital. Lieutenant Dan was in the bed next to his, having lost his legs because of his injuries. Lieutenant Dan was angry at Forrest for cheating him out of his raft to die in battle with honor (as several of his ancestors had) and rendering him crippled. . 4 Washington, D. C. Forrest later receives the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Vietnam. When being awarded, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked where he was hit and when Forrest told him he whispers in his ear hed like to see it, so Forrest, despite knowing there were people watching, drops his pants right there to show him. Shortly thereafter, Forrest went out sightseeing in Washington, D. C. and by the bye found himself among a group of veterans attending an anti-war rile led by Abbie Hoffman.While at the substitution, he was reunited with Jenny, who had since be arrange a hippie. Forrest was less enamored with her new boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS at Berkeley, and beat up Wesley after he saw him hit Jenny during an production line at a dumb Panther ships company gathering. Forrest and Jenny stayed up all night while Jenny told Forrest of her travels. Before they went t heir separate shipway again in the morning, Forrest gave Jenny the Medal of Honor he earn in Vietnam. 1. 5 Ping-Pong While in the hospital, Forrest had taken up table tennis.Rather than returning to Vietnam, Forrest was assigned to the Special Services, entertaining wounded veterans with his ping-pong skills. He would later travel to the Peoples Republic of mainland China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period. When he returned in 1971, he was a national hero, famouser than even Captain Kangaroo and was invited by galosh Cavett on The Dick Cavett Show. John Lennon was also a guest on the show at the time and hearing Forrest talk about the Chinese having no possessions and no religion too, inspired him to write the song Imagine. Soon after, Forrest was briefly reunited with Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter alcoholic, confined to a wheelchair, having lost his confidence in God. Lieutenant Dan was also dismayed that Forrest, whom he declared as an imbecile who embarrassed himself on tel evision, was given the Medal of Honor. When Forrest told him of his and Bubbas plan to go into the shrimping business, Lieutenant Dan solely laughed and joked that if Forrest was ever a shrimping boat captain, he would be Forrests first mate. Upon visiting President Richard Nixon he was invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex.He was awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, Forrest calls Frank Wills at the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal, which leads to President Nixons resignation. Shortly after this, Forrest was honorably discharged from the army with the rank of Sergeant and returned home to Alabama. 1. 6 Shrimping Boat Captain Upon his return Forrest finds the house fill with memorabilia capitalizing on his fame as a ping-pong player in China.At his mothers insistence, Forrest made $25,000 endorsing a brand of ping-p ong paddles and use most of the money to travel to Bubbas home town of Bayou La Batre and purchase a boat. When someone presageed out it was bad luck to deal a boat without a name, Forrest names his boat after Jenny (whom, unbeknownst to him, had descended into a life of drugs and sexual promiscuity at this point and even contemplated suicide over her choices). Sometime later, Forrest was visited by Lieutenant Dan, who as a man of his word, had come to be Forrests first mate, just as he said he would do on pertly Years Eve.For several weeks, the two had no luck transmitted shrimp. Things changed, however, when the area was hit by Hurricane Carmen. Forrests boat was the exclusively one left standing and they found themselves with a monopoly of shrimp. Under the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, they soon became very wealthy. Lieutenant Dan, having faced his demons during the storm, thanked Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam, and Forrest assumes that Dan (without actually sayin g so) made peace with God. 1. 7 Home in AlabamaForrest returned home to Greenbow when he learned his mother was dying of cancer. later her death, Forrest stays and leaves his shrimping industry in the hands of Lieutenant Dan and retired to mowing and cutting throne and lawns, as he apparently enjoys doing it. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dan participated in a satisfying investment into what Forrest says to be some kind of fruit company. In reality, the company was the fledgling Apple Computer, and it is implied that their investment largely kick-started Apples prove and success.With the money he got from the Apple Computer investment, Forrest spent them on renovating the perform he frequents, establishing a medical center at Bubbas hometown and gave Bubbas family his share of the investment money that is enough for them to never work again. Jenny returns to Greenbow and moves in with Forrest. The two spend time together and Forrest later describes it as the happiest time of my life. One night, Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, but she turns him down, saying You dont want to marry me. Forrest replies with, Im not a smart man, but I know what love is. After this exchange, Jenny comes to Forrests bedroom, tells him she loves him, and the two make love. Jenny hails a political hack very early the next morning and leaves, unbeknownst to him before he wakes up. 1. 8 Running Forrests newfound loneliness leads him to take a run for no particular reason. At first, he decides to run to the end of the road, then across town, then across the county, then all the way to the Mississippi border. Eventually, he criss-crosses the country several times over a span of three years. Forrest attracts media coverage, and eventually, dozens of followers.During the run, he inspires the phrase Shit Happens to a bumper-sticker salesman after stepping in a pile of dog droppings. He also uses a yellow t-shirt provided to him by a designer to cross off his face after being splattered by mud. In the process, he forms the iconic Smiley face logo and tells the man to Have a nice day. One day, while running in the Western United States, Forrest decides hes tired and stops. He immediately turns around and walks covering fire to Alabama. His followers are dumbfounded at his sudden decision.Meanwhile, Jenny has taken a job as a waitress in Savannah, gallium and sees news coverage of Forrests run on television. 1. 9 back to the Present Back to the present (the present in the film being around 1981, as seen from a car and on a bus, and televised footage of Ronald Reagans assassination attempt), Forrest tells his latest companion on the bench, an elderly woman, hed recently received a letter from Jenny asking him to come see her. When he tells her the address and directions hed been given, she tells him its only a few blocks away, and he hurries over on foot.Forrest and Jenny are happy to see each other. Before they can do oftentimes catching up however, Forrest is intr oduced to Jennys young son, a chic young boy whom she named Forrest after his father. Forrest at first thinks she met another man named Forrest, until she explains Youre his daddy, Forrest. Forrests fearful inquiry as to Little Forrests intelligence activity leads Jenny to quickly assert that he is completely normal. Forrest learns that Jenny is sick from a virus (implied to be HIV). He invites her and Little Forrest to come home and stay with him.She asks him to marry her and he accepts. Forrest and Jennys wedding ceremony is a quiet, intimate ceremony attended only by a handful of family and friends. Among the attendees is Lieutenant Dan, who has titanium prosthetic legs, with his Vietnamese fiancee Susan. It is the only time Jenny and Dan meet. Forrest, Jenny, and Little Forrest have a few happy months together as a family before Jenny dies on Saturday show 22, 1982 (which was actually a Monday). Forrest has her buried under the tree where they played as children, and then b uys her childhood home (where her ather had mistreated her) and has it bulldozed. Though he misses Jenny terribly, Forrest becomes a good father to Little Forrest. Visiting Jennys grave one day, he reflects on the idea of fate and destiny, wonder if Lt. Dan was right about people having their own destiny, or if his Mother was right about description of life as floating around accidentally like on a breeze. He eventually decides maybe its both, maybe both are happening at the same time. Forrest is exit seen outside his home, seeing Little Forrest off on his bus ride to school, telling his son he loves him. . Differences from the novel The portrayal of Forrest in the certain novel is notably different to how he was portrayed in the film. Largely, in the novel Forrest is shown to be somewhat cynical and abrasive, while in the film he is a more placid and naive person. He is also described as being an autistic savant and has extraordinary talents in numerical calculation. Changes fr om the novel to the film include the deaths of Forrests mother and Jenny, neither of whom died in the original book. The novel also provides additional back-story on his father.It is revealed that his father was a dockworker, who worked for United Fruit Company. He was killed when a crateful of bananas being loaded off a boat fell on top of him, crushing him to death. Forrest goes on a number of different adventures including being an astronaut, playing the harmonica in a band called the Cracked Eggs, becoming a professional wrestler (The Dunce) and running for the United States Senate (with the rouse slogan I Got to Pee). 3. Sociological analysis An understanding of Forrests background in an important and characterizing element in the film.Disadvantaged by a terrible spine condition and a low IQ, Forrest struggles through childhood in small-minded Greenbow, Alabama. Due to his mental disabilities, Forrest becomes the victim of schoolman discrimination, which his mother fights des perately to resolve. He might be a bit on the slow side, but my boy Forrest is going to get the same opportunities as everyone else, she stated to the principal of Greenbow County Central School. Hes not going to some special school to learn to how to re-tread tires. (Gump 1995) Forrests mother was determined.Taking advantage of this, the principal coerced Forrests mother into trading a sexual favor for enrollment in school. In addition to these unsettling events, Forrest finds himself anguished and isolated by neighborhood children and townspeople who seem incapable of treating him with anything but reproach and disdain. Forrest was also an active part of many important events, including protests lead by George Wallace against desegregation, the Vietnam War, the Ping Pong Diplomacy period, anti-war activism lead by Abbie Hoffman, Black Panther Party meetings, and the Watergate scandal.It would be reasonable to say that being part of such important events and would make him vulner able to the tender forces of the times, yet his lack of critical thought as a result of low intelligence seemed to indicate the complete opposite he remained wholly oblivious and nescient of their significance. During George Wallaces Stand in the Schoolhouse Door protest, Forrest stands curiously in the background, more interested in his surroundings rather than the actual protest. During the Vietnam War, Forrest never questions the morality or the agenda of the U.S. government, and receives the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts. His entire experience during the Vietnam War can be summed up into one intercourse between him and the Drill Sergeant Gump Whats your sole affair in this Army? To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant (Gump 1995) Still, the most dismaying portion of impassive responses glorified in this film can be contributed to Forrests careless involvement in the anti-Vietnam War rally lead by Abbie Hoffman.He was entirely clueless as to the purpose of the anti-war movements. His view of Abbie Hoffmans role? There was this man, giving a pocketable talk And every time he said the F word, people, for some reason, well, theyd cheer. Though the focus of the film is directed towards Forrest Gump, the effects of social forces are most often expressed and implied through Jenny Curran. Forrests generally unobservant nature contrasts harshly with Jennys straightforwardly and independent character.Without Jenny, we would have a collectively unrea contentionic and uncertain portrayal of many occurrences that contributed to the structure of todays society. Unlike Forrest, Jenny was consciously and intentionally involved in the counterculture movements of the 60s, as she is seen trailing the countryside with associate degree hippies, participating in anti-war movements, and secretly involving herself in Black Panther Party meetings. Before Jenny sets off on what turns out to be down(prenominal) spiral towards debasement, she speaks to Fo rrest of her motives. I want to reach people on a personal level. I want to be able to say things, just one-to-one. (Gump 1995) However, Jennys plans for a better society are brought to a staggering halt when Jenny develops a fatal disease stemming from risky drug use. 4. Awards Academy Award for Best Picture (1994) Academy Award for Best Actor (1994) Tom Hanks Academy Award for Best Director (1994) Robert Zemeckis Academy Award for Best ScreenplayBased on Material previously Published (1994) Eric Roth Academy Award for Best Film Editing (1994) Arthur SchmidtAcademy Award for Best Visual Effects (1994) Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Allen Hall princely Globe Award for Best Motion Picture romp (1995) favorable Globe Award for Best Motion Picture ActorDrama (1995) Tom Hanks Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Director (1995) Robert Zemeckis 5. Trivia In this movie, every still photograph of Forrest Gump shows him with his eyes closed. 6. Quotes Forrest Gump (explaining his run across the United States)I just felt like running. Forrest Gump My mama always said, life was like a box of chocolates.You never know what youre gonna get. 7. Question and answer event (The delightfully corrosive humor of film critics David Edelstein helps narrate this question ad answer about this movie. ) Here is another big one that didnt (surprisingly) make your list Forrest Gump. This one did make it close to the top ten, didnt it? A Well, I certainly agree with you about big, and after my less than positive check up on in Slate, I had 500 pieces of hate e-mail (mostly from teenage girls and much of it unprintable here) to prove it.But while I found Titanic mostly square and dumb (not badly acted, thoughDiCaprio and Winslet are fantastic romantic leads), its almost never pernicious. The movies I wrote about are ones I found not just overrated, but objectionably, infuriatingly overrated. Which brings us to Forrest Gump. Yes, it came close to making my top ten most hateful. I have inadequate patience for the conceit of the radiant simple, and even less when the radiant simpleton is positioned as morally superior in every way to, say, anti-Vietnam War activists.But Gump was just well made (and weird) enough to keep me in my seat. Lets put it at number eleven. 8. Conclusion Although Tom Hanks (Star in Forrest Gump) affirms that the film was non-political and thus non-judgmental, the previous examples show implications otherwise. Though the film does take a stand against disability discrimination by withdraw some light on the difficulties that accompany being handicap during a callous time in American history, its motives were generally evasive and unclear.Based on the filmmakers unattractive outlook on counterculturalism, his lack of finesse when touching on issues like desegregation and independence, as well as his insensitive approach to the deaths of activists, we can arrive at the following terminus the harrowing experience s exposed in this film can be good discarded as something warranted only by devoted individuals who attempt to sustain humanity. 9. References